Digital Cipher No. 9

I. Music & Tech

The Road to IPO : Spotify Boasts 60 Million Paid Subscribers

Up from 50 million in March, last week Spotify reported a 20% increase in paid subscribers. At 60 million users Spotify also solidified a significant lead over it’s main competition Apple Music, which reported 27 million paid subscribers just about a month ago. Between new licensing agreements with the majority of the major labels and listeners adjusting to the model of music consumption, this is a very positive sign as Spotify preps for IPO. Read more here.

Spotify Pushing Podcasts

Spotify recently announced they would be continuing their push into podcasts with new original content and a designated tab for users in the browse section of the app. Apple currently dominates this section of the market, but as Spotify continues to grow their content offering they are looking to compete in the podcast listening “land grab”. The value proposition of the podcast listener becomes pretty clear when you consider the longer listening periods and the high royalty payments Spotify has to make to labels for music content. Read more here.

Bounce App

Godmode Music recently developed the Bounce app to help artists, managers, collaborators, producers, and quite frankly anyone who might come in contact with a song during it’s production life cycle stay organized and offer feedback. The concept came from the constant scramble of keeping track of different versions of songs and the shift we are seeing with constant remastering (i.e. the evolution of Kayne’s Life of Pablo). In an interview with Billboard the creators answer questions about their web based workflow app. Check it out here.

II. Entrepreneurship

Brooklyn Stands Up

Last week Brooklyn honored it’s uncrowned king Biggie Smalls by dedicating basketball courts in his name. The basketball courts at the Crispus Attucks playground will now be known as the Christopher “Biggie” Wallace Courts. Appropriately the court was in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, the place B.I.G. called home. This year marked the 20th Anniversary of Biggie’s death – he may be gone but he is not forgotten. Check out the video of the ceremony here.